1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which includes, an ejecting head which has a nozzle surface formed with nozzles which eject photo-curable liquid; a light irradiating unit which is arranged in the vicinity of the ejecting head, and radiates light; and a moving unit which relatively moves the ejecting head and a recording medium, and in which liquid is ejected on a recording surface of the recording medium from the nozzles, while relatively moving the recording medium and the ejecting head, and the light irradiating unit radiates light with respect to the recording surface, thereby forming an image on the recording medium.
2. Related Art
In the related art, as this type of image forming apparatus, an apparatus is proposed which includes a recording head formed with nozzles able to eject ink which is curable by ultraviolet light, and an ultraviolet light irradiation mechanism which is arranged in the vicinity of the recording head along the main scanning direction, and radiates the ultraviolet light (for example, refer to JP-A-2004-167917). A long member (optical trap) which extends along the sub-scanning direction is arranged between the recording head and the ultraviolet irradiation mechanism in the apparatus, and it is possible to capture the ultraviolet light which is input to the recording head side from an ultraviolet light source of the ultraviolet irradiation mechanism, using the optical trap. In this manner, it is possible to prevent ink in the nozzles of the recording head from being cured due to the ultraviolet light.
However, in the above described apparatus, it is necessary to provide the optical trap between the recording head and the ultraviolet irradiation mechanism, accordingly, a space for arranging the optical trap is necessary, as a result, the image forming apparatus is increased in size.